Make the Clock Reverse
by DD Agent
Summary: The Doctor has lost his wife, but little things arise that make him suspect she may not truly be gone.


**Make the Clock Reverse by DD Agent**

_I do not own Doctor Who or any of its characters, or its settings - all belongs to the lovely folks at BBC.**  
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_Yeah, this is a very late xmas present for my friend Olivia *SQUISH* It is finally done, huzzah! Take note of the rating, there is a reason for it. Other than that, enjoy. _

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_One_

He had seen the towers with her, both of them dressed to the nines. It had been beautiful - _she _had been beautiful. But in his heart he had known it would only be a matter of time before she went to the library. After the visit, he had disappeared from her side, still a myth to the rest of the universe. He could not watch her pack up her belongings in order to face her grave.

The Ponds, who had since left the TARDIS to restart their family, did not know. They would not know, not for a while. Not until he was sure.

_Two_

In the library, he walked amongst the saved people. Bowtie around his neck, he looked like a professor who, whilst visiting the library, had got caught up amongst the shadows. No - that was his wife. His _wife_, his beautiful part Time Lord wife who had taken the very best of him.

His ability to feel human.

"Are you alright?"

He turned to see Donna speaking at him. Another person he had lost. Of course she would think the forlorn expression on his face strange considering everyone around him practically danced at their freedom. There would be no dancing for him, no celebration.

"I…I've lost my wife."

He moved away from Donna, walked back into the crowd. He could see his past self looking distraught, but he truly didn't know. He didn't know _her_.

When he got back to the TARDIS, all the lights were off. His - _their_ girl - was in mourning.

_Three_

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU KNEW?"

He twisted as a plate hit the cupboard above his head. He had decided to tell Amy and Rory and their children about River's death. He had explained that although she might come around again, the Professor who had spent Christmas with them would no longer do so. The visits would eventually stop when River's timeline ran out.

He had to mention - _because it was eating him up inside_ - that he had known of her death all this time.

"Get out. Get out of my house!" Amy screamed at him. Rory didn't even look in his direction as he went to comfort his wife.

Moving through the large Colchester house, he heard a door slam shut upstairs and heavy sobs pierce the air. Jenny had overheard. She was only fourteen, and she worshipped her older sister. Such loss at such a young age.

"Is she really dead, Doctor?"

Malachi was waiting for him in the living room doorway. Nineteen, he was currently following his big sister's footsteps in attending Luna University. It meant he spent most of his life in a different time zone - literally - but he was content.

"I'm sorry, Mal. I tried."

The young man snorted. "Not hard enough."

_Four_

Not many had come to the funeral. It was only a small service, commemorating the work of Professor River Song. Many still remembered her as the woman who had killed the Doctor, although several cherished her work as an archaeologist. She was the woman who discovered the lost writings of the Havani Tribe. She was the woman who had fought off scavengers in the tombs of the New Pharaohs. She was the woman who had written books and given lecturers and brought the world of the Time Lord's back to life.

She was _his_.

Amy, Rory and Jenny hadn't turned up for the ceremony. Jenny had school and both his old friends wanted to kill him on sight. Malachi, however, was there in black.

"Doctor," he whispered as he came close. "Doctor, my sister told me once that you escaped death. I know I'm looking for an out; that I'm looking for a reason but I just…"

"Just what, Mal?"

He was looking over the small plaque celebrating his wife. There was no body to put into a coffin, and considering the Time Lord DNA she possessed, her body would have rested on a pyre in any case.

"I feel like there is someone looking over me. River…before _this _she would always come talk to me, check up on me. Now I…I don't know."

For one brief moment, his hearts leapt. But then they fell again. He had tried for years to figure out an exit, but there was none.

_Five_

Malachi was in trouble. That was what the TARDIS was trying to tell him. His new phone had an alarm system that played music depending on who was calling. Hard rock was pounding out of the TARDIS' speakers, a sign that Amy and Rory's only son was in danger.

He landed on the planet and reached for his sonic screwdriver, ready to go rescue him. He was _determined _that Rory and Amy wouldn't lose another child. But as he pulled open the TARDIS doors he saw that the young boy was lying in front of him.

Reaching down, he took in the appearance of Malachi Pond. Brown hair like his father that had the unfortunate tendency to curl. His eyes - which were currently screwed up in sleep - were mirrors of his mother's. He was a tall lad but spry and had the rough hands of an archaeologist.

Turning him over to check his pulse, he saw that there was something scribbled on Malachi's cheek.

In lipstick, on his brother in law's face, were the words _Hello Sweetie._

_Six_

The Order had assembled again. A new leader was in place, this one a distinct radical who was determined to conquer the universe or...something. He wasn't too concerned about that, he was more concerned with the fact that Malachi, being a _Pond, _had gone off searching for his apparently alive big sister and had been captured by the Order. The poor archaeologist was currently hanging upside down, his ankles tightened in steel chains.

While the radical began his speech in front of the troops, talking about controlling the universe and weeding out the younger races, he used his screwdriver to untie Malachi. The younger Pond flung down to the ground, smacking his nose on the hard floor. Every eye was now on them.

He stepped from the shadows, mouth cocked into a determined smile. Malachi was here for one reason, and one reason alone.

"Where. Is. My. Wife?"

He did admit he had stolen the words from Rory. But they were _good _words.

The Doctor was coming out of retirement.

_Seven_

It hadn't taken the universe long to hear that he was alive, that he was back on the war path. The Order was furious, tracking him and Malachi across time and space. Amy and Rory, after their son had informed them of their suspicions over River, had hidden themselves and Jenny away. Until Jenny turned eighteen they refused to step back into his world.

They didn't want to lose another child.

He and Malachi were currently in the tombs of the New Pharaoh's, searching for River daily. Calling out her name, deliberately getting into trouble. At night whilst Malachi slept, he continued searching. He travelled over their places, where they had walked and talked and loved. He returned to Berlin, he pounded the streets of Leadworth. He visited the Singing Towers; he even went back and searched through the caves of the Angels.

Some days he wondered if he had imagined that lipstick.

When he woke up with the smell of her rich perfume and the scent of earth he had grown accustomed to, he wondered if he was being haunted.

_Eight_

Little clues drove him insane. That wasn't the only insane part. That bloody infuriating wife of his! He had tried for years - had tried during his little running spell before the events at the lake to figure out how to save her other than locking her away in a virtual world. He'd run simulations, had debated the use of robots and gangers and everything possible to make it appear like his wife but not his wife.

He hadn't been able to do it. But for some reason _she _had and that made him so mad.

Other than the small part of him that was so happy that his wife was alive.

He was currently standing in a museum, the nth of millions searching for any clues. He was looking at inscriptions, at records, trying to find some hint of his wife in history. After looking he headed back into the TARDIS and headed to Luna University. There he sat; looking through old books for some reference of a wild haired archaeologist whose smile was brighter than a supernova, who could let the universe crumble for the love of one man.

It was in that library, where his wife had no doubt spent hours searching through records during her degree, that he came to a conclusion. He would tear the whole universe apart to find her.

_Nine_

The Order was chasing him. He had heard that there had been celebrations all across time for his resurrection. That was nice, he supposed. He did like a good party. But it just wasn't the same without River. Dancing without his wife in his arms didn't feel right.

He was sitting in Leadworth village hall, watching Jenny have her eighteenth birthday. Four years in the life of the Ponds since he had told him their daughter was dead. Four years since Malachi had started chasing over time and space for his sister. Still nothing. As he sat in the corner, sipping a small glass of water, he watched them. Jenny had some concept of what went on in the world, but she preferred to ignore it. She liked hanging out with boys, she liked being young and free and _human_.

Her parents and her other siblings had never had that choice. He had been there, in their lives, since they were children.

They had all learnt their lesson by the time Jenny had come along.

"You alright, Doctor?" Rory asked as he joined him at the small table. He watched Rory watch his children. There was happiness there, of course there was. But there was something else - an ache. There should be three children there, celebrating an eighteenth birthday.

But there wasn't.

"I'm as well as I can be, Rory," he whispered. "I miss her."

The party continued to go on around him until a young woman disrupted his thoughts. She had a package in her hand. "Are you the Doctor?"

"Yes."

"Someone told me to give this to you."

He took the parcel from her hands and opened it up. Inside was River's diary. It had become lost after the library, but here it was. Without a scratch. He opened it up to the first page, knowing its contents in and out. But on that front page, where it should be bare, was a stamp.

A stamp from the biggest library in the universe.

His wife had never left.

_Ten_

He was in the library. The place where it had all began, and it had all ended. He was afraid, as he opened the TARDIS door, that the shadows would consume him. But as the doors opened, his home was flooded with light. There were no shadows to behold.

He walked through the corridors of the library, seeing memories flicker in and out. He saw Donna, he saw his beautiful wife look heartbroken as he had stood there and proclaimed not to know her. It didn't seem right, now, that he could not know her. River, the owner of his second heart. The other half of time itself.

He took his time as he filtered through the library; he had waited so long for this moment that his wife could wait a little longer too. As he walked, he felt his body grow lighter. With every step, he could feel things falling into place.

Someone had once told him that endings were where we begin. It was probably River.

This was a beginning.

He found himself running down the corridors, past endless streams of books, past rooms entirely dedicated to himself and the Timelords. He found himself running through time periods and displays like everything no longer mattered. The Time War didn't matter. The companions he had left behind didn't matter. His previous ten incarnations didn't matter.

All that mattered was _her_.

Eventually he made it to the true beginning, and the true ending. The Doctor stood in the room where he had first laid eyes on River Song. In an armchair by the fire, reading some tacky magazine, was his wife. The mass of curls she had was pinned back. The dress she wore was elegant, black. She was perfect.

"Hello sweetie."

He couldn't help but smile. "Hello you."

"What time do you call this?" she teased, putting aside her magazine.

He didn't know what to say. He just grinned. "Time to explain what's going on, I think"

River stood up from her chair and walked over to her husband. She wrapped her arms around his neck, gripping onto him. He gripped back, burying his face in her hair. "I needed time - time to think, time to decide. Time to heal."

He broke away and stroked her face with his hand. "We have all the time in the world."

"Yes we do."

River looked at her husband, wearing the smile he knew meant trouble was coming. The Order would be after them again, her parents would probably give him another dressing down and there would be plenty of monsters in the dark wanting to eat the universe whole. But it didn't matter, because he had her. He had her forever.

Without warning, he grabbed his wife by the hips and forced his lips down on hers. She took his kiss readily enough, opening her mouth up to his almost instantly. His hands dug into her hair and then moved down her back, trying to cling onto her the best way he could. He felt his skin grow warm as they kissed, his tongue pressing against hers. It was only when he opened his eyes that he could see the time energy milling over their skin.

"I need you."

River moaned softly as his touch grew more and more possessive. "I need you always."

He slammed her against one of the walls of the library, pressing his lips to his wife's once more. She tasted so wonderful, like returning to the TARDIS in the cool air of peace. Her hands moved across the breadth of his shoulders, dropping his tweed jacket to the floor. Their lips kept touching, time energy moving between them as his hands moved to the back of her dress to tear apart the thin strands of fabric holding her in place.

The kiss was fiery as it all blended into one another. Her hands tore at his hair; his own gripped her hips so hard he knew they would leave bruises in the morning. River gasped out loud as he pushed them both to the floor, the stone floor of the Library where legends had treaded. She was bare to him, looking up at him with all the world weariness of River Song and the innocent and magic of Melody Pond.

As he undid his bowtie and flung it to the floor, along with his shirt, he realised for the first time that he was not alone, and never would be again.

They both helped undo his belt and toss his trousers to the floor of the library. He moved over River like a ghost in the night, pressing her to the cold floor. She was liquid underneath him, moulding to his every move. He tasted every part of her skin, ran his mouth over her own.

Soon she turned the tables and was pressing _him _to the floor. She took his hand and laid it just above her breast where her hearts were pounding. He could barely breathe as she straddled him, grazing his lips with hers.

She slid down onto him, finally uniting them. With their hands clasped by River's thighs, she began to ride him. His girl always liked to be on top. But it didn't have to stay that way. He tossed her onto her back and moved over her, desperately trying to cling to her.

It was only when he slammed his wife against a book case that they found their rhythm. Naked, time energy swirling as they joined, books started to fall around them. The entirety of history started to fall around them as the Doctor made love to River Song. Her long legs were wrapped around his waist, keeping him in a prison he would never want to escape from. Her mouth was hot and wet on his, her hands roaming his back. He was inside her, his fingers clinging onto her shoulders. He needed an anchor; he needed someone to pull him back from the edge but in truth he wanted to dive in.

Books continued to fall down with every thrust he made. Eventually it got too much for both of them and with one last searing kiss, he ended it all. He came hard, screaming his wife's name in Gallifreyan. River, after a few moments, kept whispering words that he had thought long dead.

On the floor of the largest library in the world, where the shadows no longer roamed, lay the last two Time Lords. The Doctor and his River. Soaked in sweat, jubilation rushing through the pair of them, they were reunited at last.

_Time is circular. Firsts are lasts. _

For now, though, the two Time Lords could live chronologically side by side. The whole of time in their joined hands.


End file.
